A grim investigation into a fringe Christian cult in Kenya has turned up dozens of bodies, with the death count expected to rise as police continue to exhume the forest around the Good News International Church.
The church land is owned by pastor Paul Mackenzie, who was arrested on April 14 over links to cultism. The bodies found on the 800-acre plot are believed to be his followers, who starved themselves to death believing they would go to heaven and meet Jesus before the end of the world.
Last weekend alone, 39 bodies were recovered from mass graves on the property in the Shakahola forest. Reuters reports that the total death count associated with the investigation currently stands at 73.
Kenyan police raided the Good News International Church two weeks ago following tips about the cult from locals and human rights activists who found that a number of people were going missing around the coastal town of Malindi.
When police arrived at the property they found emaciated people who couldn’t even walk or talk.
Eight severely emaciated people who were found alive by police later died, said Kenya’s Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome on Monday.
At the time, Koome said some 50 bodies had been dug up in shallow graves on the property and that 29 survivors had been recovered from the secluded church complex, though not all of them wanted to rescued, still believing in Mackenzie’s teachings.
New reports indicate that an additional 26 bodies were recovered on Monday, according to Malindi sub-county police chief John Kemboi. The Directorate of Criminal Investigations said that 33 people have now been rescued from the church.
Police and local residents load the exhumed bodies of victims of a religious cult into the back of a truck in the village of Shakahola, near the coastal city of Malindi, in southeastern Kenya Sunday, April 23, 2023.
AP Photo
The death toll has repeatedly risen since exhumations began and may continue to do so.
The Kenyan Red Cross said 112 people have been reported missing to a tracing and counselling desk it has set up at a local hospital. Residents in the area have reportedly begun showing up at the exhumation sites to tell police about their missing relatives.
Mackenzie surrendered to police and was arraigned on April 15 at Malindi Law Courts. Kenyan media have reported that he is refusing food and water.
The pastor has been arrested twice before, in 2019 and in March of this year, after two children starved to death in the custody of their parents. Each time, he was released on bond, and both cases are still proceeding through the court.
Local politicians have urged the court not to release him this time, decrying the spread of cults in the Malindi area.
Mackenzie remains in custody for now, though the Malindi Law Courts have only allowed investigators to hold him for two weeks as the probe into the deaths of his followers continues.
“Forensic investigators, homicide detectives, other police officers as well as some government pathologists are here with us conducting investigations and carrying out exhumations,” Koome said in remarks broadcast on Kenyan television on Monday.
He added that 14 other cult members were in police custody.
Kenyan President William Ruto said Monday that the starvation deaths of Mackenzie’s followers are akin to terrorism.
“Mr. Mackenzie … pretends and postures as a pastor when in fact he is a terrible criminal,” Ruto said. “Terrorists use religion to advance their heinous acts. People like Mr. Mackenzie are using religion to do exactly the same thing.”
Cults are common in Kenya, which has a largely religious society.
Amason Kingi, the speaker of the Kenyan senate, said the “unfolding horror that is the Shakahola cult deaths should and must be a wake-up call to the nation, more particularly the National Intelligence Service and our community policing programme.”
“How did such a heinous crime, organized and executed over a considerable period of time, escape the radar of our intelligence system?”
— With files from The Associated Press and Reuters
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Stay connected with us on social media platform for instant update click here to join our Twitter, & Facebook
We are now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@TechiUpdate) and stay updated with the latest Technology headlines.
For all the latest World News Click Here
